Links between personality traits and inner psychology

Here is an excellent article in the UK Observer about how one woman noticed that her people pleasing traits were generating a lot of inner tension.
This is exactly the kind of inner psychology that Dr. Sarno talks about in his books (but doesn't go into much detail about, because he wasn't a psychologist). He explicitly discusses personality traits as the key to help figuring these things out.
This is the type of work that journalling takes you into, and it is why most people need to look beyond their immediate circumstances eg fear of pain, constantly feeling angry (or not feeling angry at all) to see where fear and anger have been hidden THROUGH your life.

There is a lot of talk about "trauma" being the cause of some TMS pain, which of course it is for some...but more importantly it's how our brain accumulates cultivated it's trauma like reactions. We will probably not even remember many of these instances, or have deemed them as unimportant, but as they accumulate in our subconscious they can become stuck, unprocessed, and fester. Dr. Sarno points to a rage that we don't have any knowledge of even having, it is so imbedded into our subconscious. However, rage does not always come alone. It might accompany fear, or a very deep sadness (usually emotions we catagorize as negative). Slowly these inner workings snowballed in the subconcious. Because the subconcious doesn't have a time stamp on our memories or even a very good filing system, everything can jumble...and it doesn't have to be fully sorted out. You just need some awareness of how it all works, and that NONE of any of it is your fault. We can learn we no longer have to hide this rage, and that our feelings are absolutely valid and now absolutely safe to feel. Feeling them isn't always easy...old patterns and habits come up, but it's how one RESPONDS to them, instead of just reacting to them that creates the change...sends messages to my nervous system that you can deal with things, that there is no immediate danger...even if the body reacts, my mind can respond.

This article outlines how the same process worked in the woman in this article. You may not just have one personality trait to deal with psychologically...we may have many (Sarno outlines many).


https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/03/used-to-be-people-pleaser-became-seriously-ill-learned-to-say-no (I used to be a huge people pleaser, but when I became seriously ill I finally learned to say no)

Other great resources: mytmsjourney.com is a free resource in which Dani Fagan describes the processes and tools she used to discover how her inner life contributed to her symptoms: journalling, yoga, meditation and mindset.
Defying the Verdict is @TG957 's story of how she used meditation to spend some time each day separating herself from her inner world (of obsessing, worrying, and ruminating about her symptoms) to just sit with herself through long meditations which allowed her brain to find calm and peace. Here's a link to her book: https://www.amazon.com/Defying-Verdict-Defeated-Chronic-Pain/dp/1653507837

Dr. Sarno outlines the work to be done in his books, but the method to which we find it can be done varies from person to person. The SEP or the Structured Educational Program, free on this website exposes us to a variety of methods so that we can pick and choose the ones that work best for us. Those methods may change and evolve over time.